Acomplia, oh what a mess.  Acomplia has never actually made it to the United States.  It was really big in Europe, until the big ban……..and then the recall. Yes, a recall is never a good sign, nor is a ban.  But this being said, it was originally quite popular as a prescription weight loss pill.  The idea was that Acomplia would give you the two in one deal.  You could lose weight and stop smoking all at the same time, which would be particularly appealing for people who were afraid of gaining weight should they stop smoking.

It was launched in 2006 and produced by a company known as Sanofi Aventis.  Sanofi Aventis makes just about everything, usually naming their products with an A like Acomplia, Allegra, Ambien, Actonel, Anzemet, Apidra, Arava, you get the basic idea here. Anyway, using that big name, they pushed Acomplia into the UK and other European countries, promising miracles with this new ingredient called rimonabant.  Rimonabant was supposed to target the addictive sensors of the brain essentially speaking.

So what went wrong?

Well, it was in 40 countries besides the UK.  But then the reports started pouring in about Acomplia, its side effects, its problems.  Now side effects are not out of the ordinary.  I mean think about all of the side effects we’ve suffered with Phentermine, and yet we continue taking it.  Think about all the nasty side effects we’ve suffered with Alli, and we don’t even see results with that!  But we keep taking it.  And we keep taking its prescription partner Xenical.  So what makes Acomplia so different?

Well, there’s the fact that people were experiencing what is referred to as psychosis and then there’s the fact that there were suicides.  Anxiety and depression is common among many diet pills like this.  Phentermine has reports of depression and anxiety every year.  But the suicides were what really killed it.  From there, Sanofi Aventis was actually accused of hiding negative study results which included at least one if not more suicides.  Sanofi Aventis of course denies this.  But consumers are not pleased to say the least.  After all, there were several reported incidents after launch, and yet up until the end, Sanofi Aventis continued to insist that it was a “winner” as they put it.

So eventually, as of November 2008, Rimonabant/Acomplia was pulled from the market.  Actually, all European countries officially banned it.  As such, Sanofi Aventis had no legal market to sell it to considering the American FDA had never approved it in the first place. They have always said that they pulled it for the safety of their consumers.  But the evidence suggests otherwise to say the least.  Realistically speaking, all signs point down.

But that’s not all there is to the story.  There were other companies who were thinking about launching similar products, CB1’s as they are called.  They were actually in the development stages, running studies, etc.  Bu tafter seeing the safety warnings with Acomplia, Merck halted development of its drug known as Taranabant in October 2008, a full month before Sanofi Aventis pulled Acomplia officially speaking.  Likewise, Pfizer killed studies on their drug known as Otenabant in November of 2008.  So obviously, there was something seriously wrong far before that.

All of this in mind, the studies actually were not that positive in the first place.  Users of Acomplia did not lose weight in many cases.  In most cases, it was more successful in helping them to quit smoking than in their weight loss efforts.  So if you’re looking for a prescription, obviously that wouldn’t be the most encouraging statistic.  But we will say this.  While we are not by any means encouraging or allowing Sanofi Aventis’ behavior or actions, it can be said that they were not the only company to really mess up.  Actually, in March of 2008, there were reports of Taranabant having the same side effects as Acomplia, and Merck kept going anyway.  But either way, should any one of these drugs reappear somehow, we would suggest avoiding them.

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